


The Shadow Of A Liar Leaves A Rose untouched

by sonetlumiere



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Angst, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Humanstuck, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, egger, yes that’s what i call johndave
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-20
Updated: 2019-06-21
Packaged: 2020-05-15 03:57:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19287637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sonetlumiere/pseuds/sonetlumiere
Summary: Dave Strider, 17 years old, is a liar.He’s not sure exactly what he lied about, but he knows it must be quite a lot, even with no evidence leading to that conclusion.He feels like a liar when he laughs. He feels like a liar when he speaks, and when he says hello in his typical hip fashion.He’s sure one day he’ll stop lying.He’ll be the same old person, of course- he’s quite sure of who he is- but he won’t smile quite as much, or laugh at every unfunny joke he hears.His taste in ironic memes will not change. Those are funny as shit.But what will happen when a new boy enters his classroom, and changes his world?





	1. Enter Egbert - 1

Dave Strider, 17 years old, is a liar.  
He’s not sure exactly what he lied about, but he knows it must be quite a lot, even with no evidence leading to that conclusion.  
He feels like a liar when he laughs. He feels like a liar when he speaks, and when he says hello in his typical hip fashion.   
He’s sure one day he’ll stop lying.  
He’ll be the same old person, of course- he’s quite sure of who he is- but he won’t smile quite as much, or laugh at every unfunny joke he hears.  
His taste in ironic memes will not change. Those are funny as shit.

He guesses it’s time to stop monologuing now.  
Dave sits in his classroom, twirling his pencil in between his middle and forefinger, paying no attention whatsoever to the teachers droning. She seems to be waiting for something to happen before she can get to making breakfast for the students.  
The logos of various bands are scribbled over Dave’s paper, along with some random doodles. Dave often draws headless people. He doesn’t know why, but he just does.   
The teacher calls the class to attention, announcing something that Dave doesn’t believe is worth mentioning.  
“Class,” she says, “Today we have a new student.”   
So what? Dave thought, grumbling something under his breath. So what if we have a new student, or whatever? He’ll hate it here as much as we do.  
Dave has been going to a special education school in western New York for a year now, and he loathed it more than anything else. He was there for a number reasons, from extreme emotions to his ever growing struggle to focus.  
Dave was snapped back out of an overwhelming thought process when said student entered the room. The first thing Dave noticed was how absolutely nerdy the kid looked.   
The second was how uncannily attractive he was.  
Dave felt his cheeks heat up slightly when he caught himself staring, and he quickly stared back down at his table. He tried to distract himself with another headless doodle.  
He tuned the entire world out, focusing simply on the art, and the pounding of his own thoughts against the walls of his mind. His thoughts soon blurred into he background, like the pummeling of rain onto a roof, only growing louder once you focus on the noise.  
Damn, that boy was cute.  
Someone cleared his throat in front of Dave, and he jumped out of his blurred state of mind, looking up at the source of the noise. The boy now seemed to be sitting right across from him.  
“Hey!” the boy said, a grin spread across his face, “Teach told me to come over here- uh, what’s your name? I mean, you know mine already,” he nodded to the teacher.  
“I don’t,” Dave said.  
“You don’t... uh, what?”  
“I don’t know your name,” Dave deadpanned. He felt pretty cool, but couldn’t help but feel like a dumbass for paying such little attention. Not that it mattered. He knew he was a dumbass.  
“Oh!” The boy exclaimed, smile unaffected, “John Egbert. I guess you weren’t listening- that’s fine. You look like you wouldn’t listen.”  
Dave looked back over, resting his chin on his hand. “What’s that supposed to mean?”  
“Nothing, really,” John responded, “Now it’s your turn. Name?”  
Dave shrugged, “Dave. Nice to meetcha.”  
He looked back away. John was far too cute, and no way was he risking blushing before someone he met moment ago.   
Cool. He was going to be cool. There was no way, by any stretch of imagination, that he would be uncool.  
“Ah, nice!” John grinned. Far too sociable, Dave thought. Dave wasn’t an introvert, by his own standards, because cool people aren’t introverts. He was an ambivert, who just so happened to lean slightly towards staying alone.  
It was quiet for a moment, before John asked a question.  
“Why aren’t we working yet?” He asked, a bit too loud for Dave’s liking. Dave shrugged.  
“It’s almost Christmas. We don’t really do much during holidays, and since we open presents tomorrow, the teachers are being fucking dumb and letting us hang out.” Dave heard a teacher remind him to watch his language. He paid no attention.   
John chuckled softly, “Well, then we can just talk all day! Sounds better than normal school- god, all my friends have, like, three tests today. I don’t even have work!”  
“Hooray,” Dave mumbled, sketching out a string of words.   
They sat in silence for a few minutes, before John grinned and spoke again.   
“Do you like movies?” He asked.  
“Nah, not many. Music is better.”  
John pouted and crossed his arms, tapping his foot against the ground out of habit.  
“Well,” john continued after a moment, “I do! I really love Nic Cage- he’s so cool-“   
At that, Dave began to laugh. Perfect! A perfect link to an ironic meme he loves with all of his heart. How brilliant.  
John seemed startled, and went a little red, frowning slightly.  
“What? It’s not stupid! I just like h-“  
“Have you seen the nail polish?” Dave asked.  
“...The what?”  
Dave pulled his phone out from his bag, displaying his edgy music taste to the world before unlocking it and pulling up a photo. He turned his phone to John, who took a moment to scan and read the caption intently before bursting into a quiet laughter.  
“No way!” John grinned, “Theres a... Theres a nail polish for Nic Cage!”  
Dave smirked, “You bet there is. It’s totally fucking hilarious,” language, a teacher exclaims once more, “I genuinely want to buy it, and I don’t even paint my nails.”  
“Dude, you totally should!” John exclaimed, leaning forward excitedly. Dave was shocked for a moment, but smiled back.  
“I’ll save up.”  
It’s brilliant, Dave thought. Someone actually enjoyed his presence- and his memes, for that matter. That wasn’t exactly common for him, especially in this hell hole of a school. Dave examines the students surrounding him- some of which were conversing among themselves, others baking with the teacher- and he frowned.   
People didn’t tend to like him here. It wasn’t like they hated him- well, most of them didn’t. But after a series of mishaps, he had painted himself a bad reputation, and was known as the school liar.  
He still couldn’t be sure what he lied about, and no one bothered to tell him. In their eyes, he was a sociopath; planning and coordinating every move, every small action. He in fact, was not. He was your average high schooler, to some extent.  
He supposes they all rubbed off on him.  
“Hello? Hellooo, earth to Dave,” John said, and Dave was suddenly aware of the hand waving before his face. He jumped slightly, blushing pink with embarrassment. The cute boy across from him giggled.  
“Shaddup,” Dave mumbled, biting the skin on his hand anxiously. John grinned, speaking softly as always, in that angelic voice of his.  
“Come on! I was just teasing,” he said, “Your fault for even getting mad!” That’s probably true, Dave thought. He should work on his temper.   
Soon, more people approached, greeting the newcomer no doubt. None of his completely insignificant classmates would dare to walk close enough to his table to be able to make obvious eye contact with him, unless they had a fight to pick.  
He usually had his own fights to pick, and he usually chose all of them.  
As he waited for his fellow classmates to stop pestering his new friend-opportunity, he pulled a notebook out from his bag, and began to scribble down some lyrics. He was going to be a rapper, no doubt about it. He had a gift for poems, and raps were just that.  
‘Liar Liar,  
im on fire,   
can’t believe i was desired,   
punk ass fuckin’  
loser, suckin   
my damn shoe, hell no, you’re somethin’  
i can’t ignore the idiocy,  
bought some cigs for my brother and me,  
don’t make me fuck you up like nothin’  
cause all you are is a god damned-‘  
“Nice... Poem?” John said from above Dave’s shoulder. Dave shut his notebook instantly and shoved it into his bag, looking into the opposite direction from John.  
“Why did you just read my rap?” Dave asked, embarrassed as hell. That was a draft. No way he would show anyone a draft.  
“Because shut up.”  
“Because what?”  
“Well you see, the explanation is perfectly simple and scientific. It was because shut up. Shut up is why.”  
Silence.   
“You should make a band.”  
“What?”  
“Yea!” John grinned, “You would be great! I mean, you can clearly write good lyrics, and if you get other people to help you, you could probably make... Like, a whole album!”  
Dave looked over at John, who had moved back to his seat, and tilted his head to the side. “You really think so?” he asked, eyes a bit wide. John looked slightly surprised when he was asked for reassurance, but he nodded nonetheless.  
It wasn’t long until the school day was almost over, and Dave had been sharing ironic memes with John all day. It was a better day than he had had in weeks. Just being able to talk to someone improved the environment so much for him, even when receiving scowls from his peers.   
When there were just 15 minutes left of school, Dave was spent. John, however, quite clearly wasn’t. The amount of energy the kid had was amazing.  
“Hey,” John said, “Gimme your chumhandle!”  
“My what?” Dave asked.  
“There’s this thing called pesterchum. It’s like a chatting app. You should get it and add me,” John responded casually.  
Dave nodded, “I guess. Give me your handle or whatever and I’ll add you once I get it.”  
John grinned and scribbled down his handle, handing Dave a small paper.  
ectoBiologist.

Dave was greeted home by an empty apartment, as to his liking. He didn’t expect to have someone to rave to about how excited he was, and how he had finally made a new friend- someone who didn’t hate him completely.   
He ran up to his room, skipping every other step on his way up the stairs. Once he got to it, he immediately ran to the computer, jumping into his seat.   
He starts up his computer. At least the shitty computer is faced with a godly chair.  
After a few minutes, he managed to download Pesterchum, and was faced with a screen asking him to make an account.  
He thought for a moment.  
He entered the words, “turntechGodhead”.  
He wasn’t sure quite what it meant, but it sounded cool as all hell, and that was all that mattered to him.   
He added the chum with the handle he had previously obtained.   
-turntechGodhead (TG) has started pestering ectoBiologist (EB) at 4:06 PM-  
TG: yo  
TG: this app is dumb btw  
TG: but hey  
TG: this is john right  
TG: did you like  
TG: fuckin prank me  
EB: yea totally pranked you  
EB: who’s john?  
EB: i don’t know any johns  
TG: man fuck right off  
TG: fr  
TG: okay so   
TG: uh  
TG: what’s up  
EB: we saw each other an hour ago  
TG: shaddup  
TG: anyways  
TG: i’m bored   
TG: home is boring  
EB: isn’t school boring too?  
TG: yea but at least i have shit to do there  
TG: let’s play video games or whatever  
EB: sounds good to me

For the next three or so hours, the two boys laughed and played together. It was incredibly chaotic, and neither of them proved to be very good at the game they were playing. They were often too distracted by their own jokes to press the right buttons, or complete any quests.   
It proved to be a nice night. Soon, Dave left the game and thought.  
Tomorrow was school Christmas, and he had presents for no one. No one really deserved them. But the cute new kid made him really, really want to wrap a present.  
He grabbed some money from his desk drawer and put on shoes, running out of the house. It was a cloudy day, but it wasn’t all that cold. After running for a moment, though, he regretted not wearing a sweater.   
Once he made it to the toy store, he looked around, suddenly disliking his choice of store. He finally settled on a dumb stuffed animal, one which he thought would at least make John laugh if nothing else. He bought it, and made his way back home.  
Opening the door, Dave realized he wasn’t the only one there. His bro must have returned home already.  
He shuddered, and ran straight to his room, skipping dinner and going straight to bed.


	2. The Gift Of Jealousy - 2

Dave’s eyes fluttered open, displaying eyelashes that were quite long for that of a boy. His alarm clock was blaring, and he slapped his arm onto his bedside table, missing completely and knocking it onto the floor.  
He groaned, dragging himself into a sitting position and grabbing his phone off of the surface besides him. He woke up to a simple pestering from John.  
EB: see you at school!  
Dave smiled, suddenly feeling a newfound excitement for the school day, for a reason he couldn’t quite understand. Today was the holiday celebration at his school. He specifically bought cards for everyone, all of which were oddly passive aggressive. The only person who he had gotten a gift for was John.  
John, though new, seemed like the prized gem of Room 7. Absolutely everyone wanted to befriend him, and Dave secretly felt quite proud of himself for being the first to manage to do so.   
Dave snapped himself out of his thoughts at the realization that he had been monologuing once again, and was going to be late for school if he kept this up. He took a fast-as-fuck shower, and changed into a casual outfit.  
The outfit was made up of a black shirt, red flannel, and black jeans. He was quite plain, as he always tended to be.  
He grabbed his gift, shoved the cards into his bag, and sprinted out the door just as his bus arrived. He took his usual seat on the back left seat, and stared out the window, waiting for his thirty minute drive to be over.  
He lost himself in the music he was listening to, feeling quite badass. He knew he was a dumbass, and self depreciating thoughts always lurked in the back of his mind. In the moment, he was cool. Thoroughly.  
The base of Hobo Johnson’s Typical Story rocked his ride, playing on repeat for the whole ride. He almost forgot where he was half the time.   
Soon, the bus pulled up into the schools bus circle. It jolted to a stop, and the yelling of the bus driver snapped him into reality. He stumbled out of his seat, walking off the bus, not forgetting to secretly flip off the bus driver.  
A teacher greeted him at the gate, warmly saying hello. He walked past him him, mumbling some inaudible greeting, and into the school. It was a small building, so it wasn’t all that hard to find his way to his classroom. It only took him a minute or so- the halls weren’t busy like they would be in a normal school.  
God, did he wish he went to a normal school.  
He was usually the last one to arrive, and today didn’t contrast that pattern. He blamed his shitty bus driver for making him late every day- but he was also oddly thankful for the fact that he missed out on the morning free time.   
Nobody greeted him when he walked in on most days, but, today there was a contrast.  
“Dave!” John called out, running up to him. John was slightly shorter than him, and still just as cute as he was yesterday. Dave felt himself growing slightly red, and he itched at the back of his neck nervously. “Merry Christmas- or, uh, happy holidays!”   
Cute.  
Dave uttered yet another greeting, moving to his table. John seemed quite disappointed, but god knew he wouldn’t give up quite yet.  
“So... Uh, nice to see you again!” He smiled, reaching into his bag. He pulled out a wrapped gift, running to the tree quickly mid conversation to set down the present. Dave couldn’t help but wonder who it was for, and couldn’t help but hope that it was for him.  
He pushed the thought out of his brain. As hard as he tried to expect nothing, his mind always boomed with false ideals and desperate wants. His hopes and dreams were already shooting far too high- why on earth would he be able to accomplish anything, anyways? He was a dead man already, even if he was still walking.  
He figured now would be a good time to place down his gift for John, along with his low effort cards.  
He made his way back to the table, where John was already waiting for him. His foot was bouncing up and down, displaying obvious hyperactivity.  
Dave sat down.  
“Yo,” he said simply.  
Johns face lit up, “Hey!” Dave didn’t respond, and John went on to saying, “You seem out of it.”  
‘When was he in it, then?’ dave thought. He ignored his thinking, speaking up once more.  
“‘m fine. Tired. I didn’t sleep very well,” he said simply. John frowned, seeming to recognize a tinge of pain in the other boy’s voice.   
John had always had a talent for being able to tell when people were sad. He wasn’t a therapist, by any stretch of the word. He left that job to his other friend. He just had good empathy, naturally managing to feel the pain of others. He, however, was awful at voicing this in any way.  
He decided to change the topic as an attempt to cheer the Dave up.   
“So,” he said with a smile, “What are you listening to?”  
Dave was suddenly conscious of the music that had been blasting into his ears for the past hour. He smiled, glad that the other had asked- he was absolutely obsessed with the song.  
“New single by Hobo Johnson,” he said, “Dude, it’s a fucking banger,” he said fucking a little bit quieter, and no one seemed to notice over the noises of the other students speaking, “I’ve been listening to it for an hour. It’s, like, so good- I think I would want this played at my funeral.”  
John laughed, “That seems a bit extreme, dude- lemme hear.”  
For a moment, Dave seemed kind of embarrassed, and hesitated. What if John hated hit? Dave was pretty proud of his music taste, but some people in the world just had absolute shit interests. He hoped John wasn’t one of them.  
He handed his headphones over to John, who put them on without hesitation. Jokingly, John started to head bang to the music. He showed off that he was most definitely not into metal, because his skills were absolutely terrible.  
After a moment, he stopped, listening thoughtfully. A smile crept onto his face, and Dave couldn’t help but feel incredibly proud.  
John eventually took off the headphones and handed them to Dave, a grin on his face as he spoke. “That’s awesome!” he chirped, “I... I don’t really listen to that kind of stuff often, but dude, it’s so good. Who’s it by, again?”  
“Hobo Johnson.”  
“Great, remind me to download it,” John said, doing finger guns. Dave broke into a quiet laughter at the chaotic notion, holding his face in his hand to hide his ugly laughing face. At least, he thought it was an ugly one.  
He wished he looked like John when he laughed- actually, he wished he looked like John in general. He didn’t think anyone could blame him, John was cute as all shit. Dave was just a bit too lanky for his own liking, and he didn’t like the way his hair sat fairly flat on his head. John had curly brown hair, and these beautiful blue eyes that Dave couldn’t stop himself from gazing into.   
“God, Dave, how much do you space out?” John asked, giggling to himself. Dave flushed slightly with embarrassment, looking away to avoid it being noticed.  
“I’m a very spacey, mysterious, cool person,” he said in a monotonous voice. John laughed at his dumb anti-joke as if it were the greatest one he had ever heard.   
Dave felt himself bubble with pride.  
The teachers called our, announcing that it was time to open presents. All the students ran up to the tree excitedly- save for Dave, who strolled on his way slowly. He didn’t expect to receive any presents, so there was nothing all that special about today.  
Students exchanged presents, and once it was Dave’s turn, he handed out the passive aggressive notes. They ranged from simple phrases, such as “No,” to pictures of an blonde anime character alongside materialistic phrases.  
His favorite one said, “You’re not as important as money.”  
The teachers laughed, expecting it to be a joke. One of his irrelevant classmates, who happened to be called Vriska, responded with a passive-aggressive thank you. Dave grinned at her, a gleam in his eyes that only she would be able to recognize.  
Then, it came time for Dave to hand the wrapped gift to John. John seemed surprised, but a smile spread onto his face, and widened once he opened it. It was a stuffed rabbit, which much resembled the rabbit from one of John’s favorite movies.  
“Holy shit,” John mumbled. The teachers let it slide. “Thanks,” he said simply. He seemed kind of dazed. Dave figured he would get a better response later.  
John grinned and kneeled down to grab another wrapped gift, shoving it towards Dave. Dave was surprised.  
He hoped the present was for him, but never expected to be right. He found that he was ripping at the paper before he realized he was.  
Inside was a notebook and some colored pens. Dave grinned, looking at John, who seemed to get embarrassed and anxiously explained the gift. “I mean, you wrote some super cool lyrics recently, so I figured I could-“  
Dave cut him off. “It’s great,” he said with a smile, “Thank you.”  
The teachers announced that the students could hang out until it was time for a miniature feast they had planned.   
John and Dave walked back to their table, John holding a rabbit up to his chest, and Dave with a notebook clutched in his arms. They sat down parallel to each other, each waiting awkwardly for the other one to speak. Dave decided to break the silence.  
“So,” he spoke, just as John asked, “Do you like it?”  
Dave chuckled, “Dude, of course I fuckin’ love it,” language, Dave, “I have, like, no notebooks. Or good pens, for that matter. This is brilliant.”  
John smiled proudly, “I bought it myself! I wasn’t sure what you would want, so I worked off of the little I knew.”  
“You did good- Oh, uh... Do you like the rabbit?”  
“Dude, I think you accidentally got me the best gift ever,” he said, “This looks just like the one from my favorite movie.”  
“It does?” Dave asked doubtfully.  
“Yea! Why would I lie, I could always just say I like it and stop there,” John joked. Dave nodded.  
“Suppose you’re right.”  
“So, what’s the feast, anyways?” John asked. Dave laughed.  
“Don’t trust them when they call it that,” He said, “They basically order food and make a cake. None of it’s even that good- only Miz Baker makes her own shit, and she’s a garbage chef. Plus, she teaches grade school.”  
“That’s a shame,” John responded, “I was really looking forward to having a school Christmas, and it seems like... well, a let down.”  
Dave frowned, “I didn’t mean to disappoint you. I just, uh... Kinda hate this school,” he said honestly. John chuckled.  
“I could tell.”  
“Is it that obvious?” Dave asked, though he was well aware it was obvious. It wasn’t like he had ever tried to hide it- actually, he had always aimed to make sure everyone knew.   
John nodded, still smiling like an idiot.  
The day passed quickly, and before Dave knew it, it was time for the food. As he had expected, it was quite shitty, but this year, he almost didn’t mind. Even if the food was awful, it tasted a little bit better when he was talking to John. Being with someone really made the world quite a bit brighter.  
They ate and talked, wide smiles spread on both of their faces. Dave seemed to be warming up to John even more by the minute.  
Not everyone was open to that idea.  
Now, imagine this. You’re a classmate of theirs, and like everyone else in your class, you really, really, don’t like Dave Strider.  
Suddenly, a cute new kid walks in. John, that’s his name, right? You set your heart on becoming his best friend, and welcoming him into your little hate club. Yet, there’s an unfortunate twist. Before you can plague the new kids mind with fear, he approaches Dave.  
And they hit it off, and keep hitting it off. You can just feel the friendship growing between them.   
You have to plague his mind. You have to.  
Right?  
Well, at least- if you could successfully feel those emotions- you understand the flurry of thoughts flying through the mind of a girl by the name of Vriska Serket.   
And, by god, she refuses to let Dave get John before her.  
Ectobiologist.  
She can thank her hacker friend from town for getting her that handle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don’t get mad if you like Vriska! She isn’t a set villain. In a drama filled school, good and evil tends to fluctuate- who knows, maybe things will get better, or maybe the blame will shift.

**Author's Note:**

> chapter one complete! it’s not as long as i hoped but it came to a natural conclusion so i didn’t want to drag it out too long   
> :( anyways!! if you want to contact me (i need friends lol) find me on instagram @l0serrabbit


End file.
